NEWS AND NOTES
New Activities Planned Despite Pandemic Case Spike
The Patmos SDA Church is planning to resume their Saturday worship and classroom activities on Saturday, November 7th. Meanwhile, the Southern Company Chorus has been meeting, with social distancing and face coverings, every Monday evening for the past three weeks in Fellowship Hall. Ever so slowly, activities around the church are trying to return to some degree of normalcy.
We have been encouraged by the slow but steady return of worshippers to our Sunday services. On this past Sunday, October 25th, we had 34 attendees, and combined with 10 viewers who watched our streaming broadcast, this was our largest real-time audience since the pandemic started way back in March.
However, new COVID-19 cases are spiking all across the nation. On Friday, October 23, over 670,000 cases were reported nationwide. Although new Florida case counts have generally been under 5,000 cases a day, there is a general fear that with less restrictions on social gatherings and commercial establishments, Florida may also soon experience a major spike.
Over the next few weeks, we will be involved in two meetings to discuss whether and how to continue our reopening activity. Next Sunday, November 1st, our church leadership will be joining a zoom meeting remotely to participate in our annual charge conference. At that time, we will hear what recommendations our District Superintendent and the Cabinet of the Florida Conference have to offer. Then, on Tuesday, November 3rd, the RUMC Board of Trustees will be participating in a Zoom meeting to determine what future changes are needed to ensure the safety of our congregation.
Registration for our annual charge conference has closed. However, if you are interested in participating in the next Trustees meeting on Zoom—to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd at 7:00 PM—contact the church office at 677-5995 next week during morning office hours.
RESTORE Yard Sale a Success
RESTORE held a yard sale this past Saturday, October 24th on the lawn next to the youth building. We were able to realize over $450 in sales. The money raised will go a long way towards paying for our order of 160 Thanksgiving turkeys to be given out on Thursday, November 19th and Tuesday, November 24th to our RESTORE clients.
In October and November, RESTORE will be collecting items to be used to provide Thanksgiving Dinner for families in need. We are asking for donations of the following items from church members: instant mashed potatoes, Stove Top stuffing mix, canned sweet potatoes, canned cranberries or cranberry sauce, and dry or canned gravy mix. Since our freezer space is limited, we will purchase turkeys on the days of distribution.
Online Giving at RUMC
Giving online is easy and allows you to set up automatic recurring contributions and view your complete online giving history from anywhere you have access to the Internet. Or you can enter one-time contributions from the internet or by smart phone.
To get started, simply follow these easy steps:
- Click on the Online Giving button below. This will take you to our church’s online giving webpage.
- Click on our Create Profile button on that webpage.
- Follow the onscreen instructions to create an online profile and to schedule your recurring or one-time contributions.
Rev. Louis Telcy, Pastor
Here at RUMC, it is our mission to win people to Jesus Christ; to train believers to become growing disciples; and, to send disciples to impact our community and world for Jesus Christ.
8002 U. S. Highway 301 South, Riverview, FL 33578 813-677-5995
Download the October, 2020
Bell Newsletter from this link.
We Are Welcoming You Back
We have been supporting live Sunday morning services for over two months. Each week, we are welcoming more and more worshippers back to our 10:30 AM service in our sanctuary. To date, our in-person experience has been quite good, and no worshipper has yet tested positive for COVID. Our efforts to conduct safe services have so far been blessed by God.
During our re-opening, we have been following the extensive safety guidelines set forth by the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Social distancing has been strictly observed, with seating on an “every other pew” basis. All persons entering the sanctuary are required to wear a mask and to submit to a temperature check. Congregational singing is still not permitted as we attempt to limit spray from one person to another. However, we do provide praise song videos during the services so that people can appreciate the music as well as the prayers and the sermons.
We are currently Live Streaming our 10:30 AM Sunday worship service every week. You can see worship as it is actually happening by connecting to our YouTube Channel "RUMC Live". Our live streaming channel contains services all the way back to August 19th to allow you to catch up with any services you may have missed. During most of those services, Pastor Telcy has been preaching on events described in the Gospel of John. If you subscribe to our channel, you will be notified whenever new content becomes available.
We welcome and encourage all those you feel confident in participating in worship during this continuing pandemic. We hope to welcome many long-time and new congregants during the Sundays ahead.
Our “Virtual Church” Continues
We continue to gather virtually using the ZOOM application on our computers or smart phones. We are using ZOOM to conduct all our scheduled leadership meetings, and a weekly Wednesday Evening Bible Study on Wednesday at 6:30 PM. During Pastor Telcy’s absence, Connie Mosley will be leading our Bible Study over the next two weeks. Upon his return, Pastor plans on leading us into a study of the letters of John.
On the website, as always, you will also see a link that will allow you to send in your tithes and offerings electronically; if you prefer to send your tithes and offerings by mail, please send them to:
Riverview First United Methodist Church
8002 U. S. Highway 301 South
Riverview, FL 33578
We have added a Community Bulletin Board to the Website for members of our congregation and community. If you want to let everyone know how you are doing during this pandemic, you are welcome to send a message, and it will be posted on the Community Page Bulletin Board.
Remember–God loves you, and so do we!
Pastor Louis Telcy
Care Committee
Worship Committee
Bible Passage of the Week
Two Foundations
“Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock. But everybody who hears these words of mine and doesn’t put them into practice will be like a fool who built a house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It fell and was completely destroyed.”
Matthew 7:24-27 (CEB)
